The invention relates generally to an armrest assembly for use in automotive vehicles and, more specifically, to an assembly including an inertia lock member for preventing movement of an armrest from an upright position when the vehicle is subjected to certain deceleration conditions.
Armrests are provided in most modern day automotive vehicles. Typically, the armrest is mounted to the side of the seat and is movable between and upright position and an armrest or use position. A problem presented by conventional armrests is that the armrest may fall forward from the upright position when the vehicle is suddenly stopped, for example.
Various devices have been developed for preventing seat backs from unexpectedly moving forward when a vehicle is subjected to certain deceleration conditions. Such devices are relatively complex and depend upon the hardware typically used for connecting the seat back to a seat cushion frame. Therefore, such devices are not useful for maintaining an armrest in an upright position relative to a seat back.
One type of armrest lock is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,384, issued to Sidney J. Sharod on Apr. 1, 1986. The Sharod armrest lock has a relatively complex linkage mechanism that can prove prohibitively expensive in some application. Further, the Sharod armrest lock depends upon an interaction between more than one moving piece, which introduces the possibility that the lock will not perform reliably.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an armrest lock that is economically feasible and reliable. This invention meets those objectives by providing an effective, economical armrest lock that can be implemented on most armrests without requiring any significant modification of the existing armrest structure.